The Adventures of Long John Silver: Devil's Stew

Long John gambles away his ship with a 200 gold sovereigns note.

Plot synopsis: Long John gambles away his ship to a pirate with loaded dice and decides to take "Devil" Dixon up on a deal to do legitimate sailing.

Thoughts:

This is a rare episode in that Long John does something very violent and in line with being a pirate when he stabs a pirate who is trying to cheat him in the hand. You'd think that would happen more often in a television series about a pirate with a bad reputation, but Long John is essentially neutered 99% of the time. He really doesn't work as a character with the premise of the show otherwise since no self-respecting pirate would hang out in a tavern allowing himself to be nagged all the time nor would he fret over a cabin boy's future.

Long John turned to Purity for the money, and quite in line with her character, she refuses. Long John losing his ship increases the chances that he'll join her working the Cask &

Anchor when he runs out of other options or follow the path of legitimate trade (hauling livestock) that she wants him to follow.

What follows is a little adventure story where Long John takes people who are trying to take him. It's what happens when a group of dishonest and devious people maintain their respective charade of being honest.

Long John shares some goat stew with Mendoza, the cream puff Spanish officer.

Favorite moments:

The episode opens with the town crier shouting "twelve

o'clock and all is well." It reminds me that this is a rare aural reminder of the era, and I like it.

Purity stands in her room holding her wedding dress. One has to wonder how many times she has found herself doing that

while waiting for Long John to do right by her. It was an old-fashioned idea, but it fits her character.

Dixon's lackey smacks a Spanish collaborator a few times and the Spaniard folds like a deck of cards. He was quite the Latin marshmallow.

Long John makes a stew out of one of the goats. I always enjoy seeing him playing cook.

Favorite quotes:
Long John to Ironhand: "Aargh, women, Ironhand, they be queer cattle.

Purity to Long John: "Are you suggesting that I, that I should set sail with a load of foul-smelling animals?" (given that he travels with pirates, there was undeniable irony in this

statement.)

There aren't a lot of funny lines in this one, but the words "we all be honest men" or variations thereof are uttered with irony quite a few times.

Stray notions:

Bartholomew "Devil" Dixon's lackey is the oddest looking creature that I have ever seen. I'm not sure what he's supposed to be, but yellow face make-up, an earring, a straw hat and a diminished affect didn't offer me any clues. It was an abysmal make-up job.

Purity is just as devious and selfish as Long John when she sends Ironhand around to all of Long John's potential creditors and tells them not to loan money to him.

Purity and Long John both call each other "lover bird". One can't imagine these two ever kiss, hug or do the

nasty together.

The animals are kept on deck. There's no way they wouldn't be kept in a hold somewhere.

The actor who plays Devil Dixon has a nose Jaime Farr would envy.

Ironhand has one of the worst prosthetic hook make-up jobs I've ever seen.

Mold to Gold Rating:

I liked this from the start because I knew it was going to be all about pirates and ships. Even though I didn't like the set up (as I don't believe Long John would gamble away something as important as his ship), I liked the double-devious machinations going on with both Purity and Long John, and the fact that part of the episode took place on the ship. The creative way in which Long John negotiates a bribe with the Spaniard is quite a treat. This was a nice light-hearted little pirate tale.